Free to See: 20 U.S. Museums

These top-notch museums—of art, fashion, dinosaurs, and more—are free to the public some or all of the time. What are you waiting for?

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Works by French artist Henri Matisse draw visitors to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Photograph by Howard Korn, Baltimore Musuem of Art

The Getty Center

Los Angeles, California

The Getty Center, part of the J. Paul Getty Museum, is a Los Angeles icon, housing a fabulous collection of Western paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. The art is matched by its setting—an architectural showplace of buildings and gardens, with one of the best views in L.A. The nearby Getty Villa, in Malibu, showcases treasures from Greece and Rome.

Tenement Museum

New York, New York

This intriguing Lower East Side museum is open only for fee-based tours that showcase the lives of immigrants who once lived in the neighborhood. But free attendance is offered at Tenement Talks, the museum's fascinating lecture series on topics of immigration, history, and urban America, held at the museum shop on Orchard Street.

NASA StenniSphere

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

StenniSphere is the visitor center at NASA's Stennis Space Center, America's biggest rocket engine test facility. Free tours feature shows and exhibits that allow visitors to examine spacecraft, fire up a mock space shuttle engine, or even pay a virtual visit to the International Space Station. The tours launch from the Hancock County Welcome Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Fairbanks Community Museum and Dog Mushers Museum

Fairbanks, Alaska

The free community museum tells the story of Fairbanks, while a second site in the same building pays particular attention to the faithful, four-legged athletes who helped build modern Alaska. From Native Alaskan sleds to the Klondike Gold Rush days and the modern Iditarod, the Dog Mushers Museum may be the word's foremost museum dedicated to the topic.

St. Louis Science Center Star Parties

St. Louis, Missouri

The stars come out when the St. Louis Astronomical Society hosts its parties at the Science Center on the first Friday of every month (January - November). Attendees can learn “what's in the sky tonight” and peer at the heavens through numerous telescopes while experts answer questions.

Free Days at the Field Museum

Chicago, Illinois

Where can you meet Sue, the famous T. rex, explore an Egyptian tomb, and see how life on Earth evolved for four billion years? Chicago's Field Museum is the place, and on several dozen days a year you can see it all for free.

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, D.C.

The nation's capital is chock-a-block with free attractions, and most of the Smithsonian Institution's 19 museums and galleries are among them. National Mall attractions like the Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, and the iconic Smithsonian Castle are must-sees for all visitors to D.C.

California Academy of Sciences

San Francisco, California

The Academy bills itself as the only place on Earth with an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and four-story rain forest housed under the same roof. San Francisco residents can see it all for free on designated days, which are so popular that they've been selectively scheduled according to resident zip codes.

The Museum at FIT

New York, New York

Fashionistas take note: This museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology boasts one of the world's most fabulous collections of fabrics, clothing, textiles, and accessories. They say fashion's only constant is change, and the museum shows off 250 years of style evolution.

Frye Art Museum

Seattle, Washington

This Seattle museum boasts a fine collection that originated with a gift by Charles and Emma Frye—who donated their own art for free viewing by the people of the city. Today the museum furthers their legacy by hosting a wide range of community programs, including tours and talks, some of which are also free.

The Baltimore Museum of Art

Baltimore, Maryland

The BMA is free to everyone, every day, and boasts a renowned collection of works from around the globe, both classic and contemporary, including the largest selection of Henri Matisse paintings in the world. Visitors can also escape the city streets in the museum’s pair of serenely landscaped sculpture gardens.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, Ohio

This Wade Park institution, founded a century ago “for the benefit of all the people,” remains free to all and offers a wide range of exhibits, from African art to photography. The museum is undergoing a massive renovation, scheduled for completion in 2013, but many of its collections remain on view, including notable objects of Egyptian art.

The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University

Dallas, Texas

This Dallas museum boasts an incredible array of Spanish art from such masters as Velázquez, Murillo, and Ribera, as well as Goya and Picasso. You might have to go to Spain to find a better collection—and that wouldn't be free. The Meadows Museum is free on Thursdays after 5 p.m.

Sheldon Museum of Art

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The Sheldon may be at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but with works by the likes of Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol, it's far from your typical university art museum. The price of admission—free for all—is surely near and dear to any student's heart.

Indianapolis Museum of Art

Indianapolis, Indiana

This Indianapolis museum boasts outstanding collections of Georges Seurat and the Neoimpressionists; Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School; J.M.W. Turner; Japanese Edo-period paintings; and Chinese ceramics. Access to the Lilly House, an outstanding example of an early-20th-century American country estate, is included with free admission.

Museum Adventure Pass

Detroit, Michigan

Local libraries are the gateway to museum adventure in Detroit, where simply presenting your card earns you free tickets to an impressive lineup of local museums, including the Automotive Hall of Fame, the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The MIA's Asian collection spans 5,000 years, with exhibits ranging from ceramics to silk textiles. Decorative arts, including furniture, metalwork, and glass, share space here with paintings, prints, and photography, while a contemporary art initiative focuses on showcasing living and working artists.

Dinosaur Trail

Montana

Travel the free Dinosaur Trail to several locations in Montana. Jordan’s Garfield County Museum has a full-size Triceratops replica, a full T. rex skull, and other Cretaceous fossils from the Hell Creek Formation. About 90 minutes away, the Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum boasts one of the world's most complete T. rex skeletons, as well as creatures from the Cretaceous Sea. Three hours farther on, at the Blaine County Museum in Chinook, visitors can actually handle fossils from ancient dinos and sea creatures.

Miami Museums

Miami, Florida

The Miami Art Museum is free on the second Saturday of every month—but in this city you'll have no trouble filling the week's other days as well. The Wolfsonian-FIU museum showcases its modern art and design collection for free every Friday evening after 6:00. Other free museums in Miami include the Bay of Pigs Museum and the World of Bacardi Museum (reservations required).

U.S.S. Constitution and Museum

Boston, Massachusetts

The Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” launched in 1797 and remains the oldest commissioned warship still afloat anywhere in the world. This ship is an enduring museum of seafaring history, and active-duty Navy sailors give free tours year-round in Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard. Onshore, the U.S.S. Constitution Museum houses a large and fascinating collection and charges no admission fee—though a donation is recommended and happily accepted.